Month: September 2021

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When WWE performers win their respective Money in the Bank briefcase, it means they’re guaranteed a title shot at anytime, anywhere. Some have cashed in suddenly, creating epic moments. Others have given fans, and their opponents, the heads up about their intentions. The current briefcase bearer, Big E, just dropped a huge development for tonight’s edition of Raw.

“Let’s let that cat out of the bag,” he tweeted. “I intend on cashing in my Money in the Bank contract tonight and cashing in to become WWE Champion.”

Since winning the contract, Big E has shown up randomly in backstage bits, usually taunting Paul Heyman or MVP, the respective managers Roman Reigns and Bobbly Lashley who both hold the company’s top two championships.

In his career, Big E has won the Intercontinental Championship, Tag Team Championship, and is a former NXT Champion as well. This is his first time really being seen as a serious contender for any world title since transitioning to a single star on Smackdown.

Earlier in the day, Fightful had reported that Big E was going to be used tonight in some appearances, which escalated quickly to him announcing his intentions and he soon became a trending topic on Twitter. Fightful then commented it wasn’t sure if he was even serious.

Should Big E successfully cash in, he will be only the fourth Black WWE Champion ever.

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Call of Duty: Vanguard’s PlayStation-exclusive multiplayer beta kicked off this past weekend, letting players get a taste of some of the guns, maps, and modes set to be featured in Sledgehammer Games’ return to World War II this fall. Here are some thoughts after a weekend with Vanguard left me with a mix of optimism and concern.

Visibility Is Still An Issue

Starting with the changes from the initial alpha test with Vanguard’s Champion Hill mode, the multiplayer beta definitely showed Sledgehammer Games partially delivered on the improvements promised for the game’s visibility. One major complaint was the dark visual effect when a player was taking damage. This effect has been drastically reduced for the beta, and players are no longer hindered by a dark screen in those crucial moments.

Now Playing: Call of Duty: Vanguard Multiplayer Reveal Livestream

Unfortunately, Vanguard seems to still struggle with some significant visibility issues, which have been made even more apparent with the 6v6 maps during the beta. Players just seem to blend in with the background. And even at close-to-mid range, players often become invisible in doorways and windows. It seems like general visibility is good for most of the playable area, but in certain spots it just gets completely lost.

The map that did struggle with visibility issues the most was Red Star, a snowy map with a wintery haze that impacts your ability to see. I heard many complaints from PS4 players struggling to see on Red Star, and my visibility wasn’t much better on PS5.

There’s also a really intense visual effect that happens when firing some assault rifles and light machine guns, as extreme smoke and blurriness appear all around your line of sight. Hopefully this can be toned down before launch.

Developers Sledgehammer Games already responded on Twitter, letting players know it is aware of the feedback around the visibility and audio issues.

Footsteps And Audio Quality

I’m not sure if the footstep audio will remain the same for the release, but as it stands, footsteps are really quiet. This is something maybe not everyone will be happy about, but I think quiet footsteps are a good thing for Vanguard, as this upcoming Call of Duty will not include the Dead Silence perk to quiet footsteps. One downside to 2019’s Modern Warfare was the lack of a Dead Silence perk, especially as the game featured really loud footstep audio. Just like Modern Warfare, Dead Silence is instead going to be available as a Field Upgrade, which gives the user nearly silent footsteps for only a temporary time. This means a player can opt for brief ninja-like footwork, but with the footstep audio already being low, the Dead Silence field upgrade shouldn’t feel like an obligatory perk players need to rely on in Vanguard.

There have been some complaints over inconsistent audio. There were times for me that the footstep audio was the soft but audible footsteps, but then sometimes it seems like there were no footsteps at all. The overall audio could sound a bit muffled as well.

Destructible Environments And Doors

When destructible environments were first announced for Vanguard, there was some unease of how well this would work in a Call of Duty game. Destructible environments work great for games like Rainbow Six Siege and Battlefield, but I questioned if it would fit Call of Duty’s more arcade style.

But after getting hands-on with the beta, I think it’s going to be fine for Vanguard. These destructible environments were on all the maps featured for the weekend, but in terms of destructible cover, it’s still pretty mild. Players aren’t taking down a full-size wall or half of a building like in the Battlefield games. There are just conspicuously boarded-up windows and wall sections that players can shoot, melee, or sprint through to open up new routes or lines of sight. I’m not sure how frustrating this might be for competitive Call of Duty on a pro or amatuer level, but this new feature probably won’t have a big impact for the casual Call of Duty player. I’m surprised by how oddly satisfying it’s been to sprint through these walls like the Kool-Aid man.

Maps

In addition to Champion Hill’s arena maps, the beta introduced three standard 6v6 maps:

• Hotel Royal takes place at a large Paris hotel with interior and exterior fighting.
• Red Star is the snowy map with poor visibility, which is set at an urban plaza during the Battle of Stalingrad.
• Gavuta is a map based on Gavutu Island in Japan, with the island experiencing stormy weather.

Overall, I really enjoyed Hotel Royal. I think the map design fits with the traditional Call of Duty multiplayer feel with plenty of close-quarters interior space, which is where most of the chaotic action happens, and then there is an exterior flanking route on each side of the hotel. There is also plenty of rooftop space to fight. Hotel Royal definitely has the best lighting and visibility of all the beta maps.

Gavutu is also a nice map layout, and I mostly enjoyed my time on the island, but it does suffer some of the visibility issues. It’s just not nearly as hard to see as Red Star. The wind and rain effects on Gavuta aren’t an awful hindrance like Red Star’s winter weather, but it’s probably not helping much either. Call of Duty: Vanguard is set to launch with 16 core multiplayer maps, and hopefully many of them won’t share the weather elements and visibility issues. Hopefully more of them look and feel like Hotel Royal.

There were some spawn issues with the 6v6 maps, especially on Hotel Royal. I often found myself spawning with the enemy team, while my team was clearly spawning on the opposite side. However, I’m not too worried about spawns in the beta. Those are common issues that generally get tweaked by launch or shortly after.

Modes

In addition to the 2v2 and 3v3 Champion Hill mode from the alpha test, the beta also offered some of Call of Duty’s staple modes with Team Deathmatch, Domination, and Kill Confirmed.

Vanguard’s beta also introduced another new game mode with Patrol. Based on Hardpoint, this objective-based mode features a scoring zone in near-constant motion. Operators rack up points for their team by following and moving around the map within the Patrol point. I think this was a pretty fun mode.It really puts pressure on teamwork, and adds spice to the classic Hardpoint-playstyle. I can’t wait to see how it plays on some of the other maps.

Kill Confirmed was the biggest disappointment, because it doesn’t really fit the killstreak-style reward system this year. This is a classic Call of Duty mode that requires players to collect enemy dog tags to score points. Players drop tags in death, so it’s important to “confirm” kills by collecting the enemy tags, but also collecting friendly tags to deny the enemy of the point. I honestly don’t think Kill Confirmed is the right mode for any Call of Duty game with a killstreak system instead of scorestreaks. I’d like to think players were just ignoring the tags because it was the beta, but this was an ongoing problem for Modern Warfare as well. Matches often went to time instead of score. This is definitely a mode that works better for Black Ops Cold War’s scorestreak system, but maybe the developers can tweak the mode to better incentivize the players to run out and collect the tags for Vanguard.

TTK And Pacing

As of right now, the time-to-kill in Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer sits somewhere between Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare, and the pacing of Vanguard’s matches can easily depend on the player’s choice of playlists. Vanguard introduces Combat Pacing, which changes up the experience across Vanguard’s map pool based on the amount of players on the map. For the beta, players could choose between three different Combat Pacing options, or choose to play a mix of them.

• Tactical: This is the standard 6v6 Call of Duty multiplayer experience.
• Assault: This combat pacing adds more players than the traditional 6v6, but it isn’t quite as chaotic as Blitz. The player count for the beta will vary between 20-28 players.
• Blitz: Blitz features hectic matches as 28-48 players are crammed on the 6v6 maps. This pacing might be best for fans of modes like Modern Warfare’s Ground War and Black Ops Cold War’s Combined Arms.

Weapons, Gunsmith, And Perks

Vanguard’s weapon selection for the beta was filled with many familiar guns from Call of Duty’s previous ventures into the World War II era. This included the popular STG44 assault rifle, MP-40 submachine gun, and the MG42 light machine gun.

The Gunsmith was a fantastic introduction in Modern Warfare that carried into Black Ops Cold War, but I do worry that Vanguard has overly complicated a good thing. Players can now equip 10 attachments to their weapons, which includes a new host of ammo types to choose from.

This new Gunsmith might not only overwhelm some players with trying to find the best attachments to make the most of their weapon, but it could prove to be a huge grind to unlock good attachments. However, some players may actually love nerding out and creating even more custom weapon builds.

Despite the more complex Gunsmith, most of the core elements of Call of Duty’s Create-a-Class system remain the same in Vanguard. Players are still able to equip a primary weapon, secondary weapon, lethal equipment, tactical equipment, and three perks. There are no Wildcard perks this year, so players can’t double down with extra perks or attachments. Everyone will have three perks and the choice of 10 attachments.

Players can expect plenty of classic perks such as Ghost, High Alert, and Double Time. There’s also a new Radar perk. Vanguard’s minimap is the same as Modern Warfare’s, meaning it won’t reveal players as red dots on the map when they fire with unsuppressed weapons. The new Radar perk gives that intel back, but at the cost of other useful perks.

Killstreaks

The beta features pretty staple streaks: Spy planes, counter-spy planes, care packages, death machines. Attack dogs also make a return in Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Vanguard moves away from Cold War’s scorestreaks, and returns Call of Duty to a killstreak-based system. This might be a popular change, as many players felt Cold War’s scorestreak system made streaks way too abundant in matches. Vanguard definitely dials it back with streaks. Not only are they only earned for going on a killstreak without dying, but the streaks won’t overlap like Cold War’s multiplayer. Once a player uses all their killstreaks, they won’t earn anymore until death resets the streak.

The one downfall to Vanguard’s system is that it could entice players to camp for streaks and play it safe, while Cold War’s scorestreak system at least rewarded players for actually playing the objective. As stated earlier, my Kill Confirmed matches during the beta were littered with red and blue dog tags, as players on both teams just sat back and earned their killstreaks. Matches like this almost always went to the time limit. I’d love to see a Call of Duty game introduce a split system for streaks, with killstreaks awarded in Team Deathmatch modes, and a scorestreak system for objective modes like Kill Confirmed.

Final Thoughts

Call of Duty has seen many iterations with WWII settings, jetpacks, and the modern era of war, but the initial community response to returning to WWII was not exactly positive. Personally, I was also a little wary of returning to bolt-action rifles and the drab maps like we saw in Call of Duty: WWII, but I think there’s a decent multiplayer experience to be had with Vanguard. I love Champion Hill, and design-wise I think the maps are really good. I just wish the maps were a little more vibrant, and I hope the visibility issues can be better addressed before launch.

Early access to Vanguard’s beta went live on PlayStation for players who preordered, or anyone lucky enough to score a beta code. This PlayStation-exclusive beta ran from September 10-13, but there’s still another opportunity to play. Next weekend will feature a cross-play beta for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC players.

Call of Duty: Vanguard is releasing on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC on November 5. The release is still on schedule as Activision Blizzard faces a lawsuit from the state of California over harassment and discrimination against women.

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The Isle of Blackreef is a place where lawlessness and debauchery aren’t just welcomed but encouraged. It’s caught in a time loop, so the events of any given day have no bearing on the next. At the end of every sex, drug, and alcohol binge-fueled evening, the slate is wiped clean so it can happen all over again. Memories are lost and harm–self-inflicted or done to others–is always undone. Blackreef changed me. It made me behave in a way that’s not in my nature. Whether it’s Metal Gear Solid, Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, or Dishonored, the role I inhabit is that of a ghost, entering a scenario to achieve an objective and leaving with clean hands and conscience. I’m the pebble thrown into water that makes no ripples.

And yet, in Deathloop, I murdered hundreds of Eternalists and I felt good about doing it. I tried to be true to myself–skulking across rooftops, hiding in dark corners, and carefully moving between people, but the allure of Blackreef’s daily absolution was difficult to resist. I watched the first Eternalist I killed dissolve into nothingness, and a message written into the air in some ethereal ink assured me he’d return in the next loop, completely oblivious to what happened. Killing became second nature, and with no consequence why wouldn’t it?

The rules of Deathloop’s world created an intoxicating sense of liberation, but this leads to the game’s central question of purpose: When nothing matters, how do you give your actions meaning? That is where developer Arkane Lyon’s gameplay design comes into play, and killing with reckless abandon becomes killing for a reason: to break the loop. The mechanics that govern the world and facilitate your quest to upend it are constructed so masterfully that there’s a tangible sense of growth both in-game and out of it. You begin your first day in Blackreef dazed, confused, and incredibly hungover, and end your final one as the unstoppable architect of its demise.

But what’s most impressive about Deathloop is that it’s also an introspective game. It’s Arkane deconstructing its own brand of open-ended action and laying bare all the pieces crucial to it. The systems are presented as digestible on an individual level, but then the game subtly pushes you to put the pieces together so you can truly appreciate how the clockwork world ticks, before bringing a swift fist crashing down on it. Deathloop is a game where observation and dynamic thinking go hand-in-hand with shotgunning goons in the face and snapping their necks; where throwing a grenade into a soiree for sycophants counts as the right kind of experimentation and derring-do. It delivers bombastic thrills and wince-inducing kills with intelligence and elegance in equal measure.

At the heart of the game is Colt Vahn, a man simultaneously adrift in time and stuck within it. He wakes up on a beach with no memory of how he got there or what’s really going on. However, what distinguishes him from the other hedonistic denizens of Blackreef is that he is able to retain his memories between loops. Dying will force him into a new loop, but the knowledge he has accrued up until his death will return with him. And very soon, he discovers that a strange element called Residuum can be harnessed to give his arsenal of weaponry and supernatural abilities permanence too.

Like Arkane Lyon’s Dishonored games, Deathloop is a fascinating mashup of styles and vibes, both narratively and aesthetically. Underpinning the world is a kind of retro-future science that, as oxymoronic as it sounds, is incredibly effective at giving the world texture–think time travel by way of 1960s computers that fill a room and look like they have less power than an original iPhone. Complementing that is an element of the supernatural that is essentially time science harnessed by a genius mind to give a chosen few the ability to do things like teleport, link the fates of people together, become almost invisible to the naked eye, or throw objects around an environment with a wave of the hand. These abilities are bestowed to the Visionaries, an eclectic group of elites that the rank and file are sworn to protect so that their life of indulgence can remain eternal. Colt’s goal is to kill these Visionaries and, in doing so, break the time loop that keeps him trapped there. The rub is that it needs to be done in one day–a single loop. Easier said than done given that the game operates on a day and night cycle where, over the course of the loop, each Visionary has their own routine and life to lead.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the Visionaries know Colt is out to get them and, in fact, all of them have some sort of pre-existing relationship with him. One in particular, Julianna, takes it upon herself to be a thorn in Colt’s side. She serves the role of antagonist but the situation is clearly complicated between them. Their interpersonal dynamic is placed front and center to drive much of the narrative and characterization, and both characters are realized exceptionally well.

Julianna is the voice in Colt’s ear and also over Blackreef’s loudspeakers, and she does her damndest to get under his skin. She picks at him in a way that only someone with a deep personal connection to you can, using insight into his personality and history to constantly undermine him and poke at his neuroses. She’s always one step ahead, exposing Colt’s habits, analyzing his behaviors, and revealing truths about Colt that, because of his initial amnesia, he’s yet to realize himself. And yet, there’s also a sweetness to their interactions at times, like a couple in the heat of an argument remembering for just a moment why they care about each other. She’s a confusing presence, in one breath chastising him for his actions and in another encouraging them. She guides him to objectives and then lays the guilt on thick when he achieves them.

In a very real sense, she’s a pure agent of chaos and her motivations remain unclear until just the right moment. The voice acting is absolutely crucial to selling this relationship and in that regard, it is achieved exceptionally well thanks to the outstanding delivery by Jason E. Kelley and Ozioma Akagha as Colt and Julianna respectively. Some lines from Julianna have a mischievous tone while others are tinged with spite and growing frustration. For his part, Colt begins unsure of himself and unclear of why this woman has it in for him, but as he learns more, he becomes confident, choosing to engage in the verbal jousts and starting getting under her skin. The constant back and forths between the two is genuinely a joy to listen to and the writing is sharp to make the development of their relationship feel natural.

The main focus of Colt’s attention, however, is the aforementioned Visionaries who need to be offed, and this is where Deathloop’s open-ended gameplay does the heavy lifting. Blackreef is split up into multiple districts, and each one is usually home to at least one of the Visionaries. Colt’s objective is to enter an area and figure out how to get himself into a position where he can kill said Visionary and take their Slab, an item that gives them one of the six unique supernatural abilities. But it’s not as simple as running into a building and gunning them down as each of the Visionaries is… a weirdo. Charlie, for example, has transformed a part of Updaam into a low-budget escape room made up of multiple themed floors, complete with puzzles and a whole lot of weapon-wielding Eternalists standing between the entrance and him. Harriet has taken up residence in a Karl’s Bay hanger, where she’s hosting a group wellness session that is as sinister as it sounds. Wenjie is a super smart scientist who is responsible for harnessing the strange energy of the time loop to create the slabs and rarely leaves her lab in The Complex, but you might find yourself facing an existential conundrum when you’re face to face with her.

Deathloop is a game where observation and dynamic thinking go hand-in-hand with shotgunning goons in the face and snapping their necks … it delivers bombastic thrills and wince-inducing kills with intelligence and elegance in equal measure

Deathloop’s day-and-night cycle also means that these Visionaries are only available at certain times of the day. Although you can manually progress time to your needs, there’s only ever a specific window of opportunity to kill a Visionary. That means you need to play through time loops repeatedly, puzzling out a plan to execute it when the time is right. The game makes this more manageable by giving the player Visionary Leads to follow. These are quest chains that guide the player to key pieces of information necessary to pull off the assassination and will often take Colt through different environments at different times of the day. You may need the code to a door in Fristad Rock, for example, but a ledger with that information is being stored in an office elsewhere that can only be accessed when a worker leaves the door open in the afternoon.

The result of this approach is that you’re slowly trained to develop a meticulous understanding of each area in the game. And as your Colt grows in strength and capabilities, so too does your proficiency in navigating them. After killing a Visionary you gain a power, which can be used in the following time loops, provided you invest in it. This growth comes by way of Residuum that can be extracted from charged objects in the environment or, in more abundance, from the dead body of a Visionary. By channeling this resource into weapons and items, you’re able to hold onto them between loops. Slab powers are the most essential as they give you a significant ability, and killing a Visionary repeatedly to take their slab will evolve the power. The Shift power, for example, lets you teleport much like Dishonored’s Blink. But by repeatedly killing the Visionary wielding it and collecting it, you’re able to upgrade the power to let you travel further or hover in the air briefly. Aether lets you turn invisible but becomes more effective if you upgrade it so its effect doesn’t wear off when you attack.

Along with powers, Trinkets are also littered throughout the world and come in two flavors. Weapon trinkets can be used to augment your combat abilities by improving stats like range, power, and aim-down-sights speed. Personal trinkets, meanwhile, enhance Colt’s performance by improving health regeneration, decreasing the amount of noise he makes when moving, or adjusting how his power meter depletes and recovers, among other things. And these all come in multiple color-coded tiers of effectiveness. The presence of these is what makes each time loop consistently rewarding to play through, even if you fail to achieve a bigger objective. Sometimes it can be good to do a run through an area or even an entire loop to build your Residuum balance and collect some more trinkets, especially since it’s also an opportunity to refine your chosen playstyle a bit more. There’s nothing quite like deciding to run into an area with your guns blazing just so you can chew through Eternalists and a Visionary, knowing that you’re doing it just to grab resources. Since Colt is able to come back from death twice, there is a degree of forgiveness in the game that really encourages doing wacky things when the opportunity arises. That third death will reset the loop entirely though, so some strategy is also required if you want to make the most of your time.

Very quickly, you’ll find yourself developing a level of mastery over the world thanks to the powers and weapons that you’ve accumulated. A Visionary kill that initially took 20 minutes can be reduced to just a couple as you dart around environments, stealthing through one group of enemies, while laying siege to another, and ultimately cutting through your target before they’ve even realized what’s happening. The repetition-based design of Deathloop eases you into creating a flow state that you can enter into and exit from at will. With the character development systems, it gamifies trial and error so effectively that failures almost always still feel like small triumphs. This might sound typical, given the prominence of recent roguelite games such as Hades, but Deathloop’s gameplay feels entirely of its own brand, and that is because it’s built on the foundation of Arkane’s domino-effect design.

That is especially apparent as you uncover dead ends, of which there are many scattered around Deathloop’s various environments. Documents peppered around the world will provide a small lead on something, which is then marked as a discovery, and the game does an excellent job of creating a breadcrumb trail around Blackreef for you to follow, and it always leads to something meaningful. Whether it’s finding the code to open a locked door you stumbled upon hours ago or figuring out how to manipulate two Visionaries into appearing at the same place at the same time, you’re never more than a run or two away from having an epiphany. And when it dawns upon you, the feeling will make you giddy. It’s like using just the right wrench to loosen a nut that felt like it was impossibly tight.

In many regards, Deathloop is a game about being meticulous, and Arkane has done a fantastic job in making just being in the world, looking around, and listening to it enthralling. It should come as no surprise that Blackreef is absolutely stunning to behold, given the strong sense of art direction the studio’s previous games have had. Each of the four areas of the game has a distinct style, which changes depending on the time of day thanks to lighting and even weather effects. There’s a wonderful retro pop-art motif that runs throughout, with eye-catching posters and signs that not only furnish each environment to be visually pleasing, but also serve as a kind of pathway for the player to explore. Architecture is constructed thoughtfully so, in any given scenario, you can see a way in and a way out. On the ground level, a neon billboard may draw your attention, revealing scaffolding that can be clambered up to give you a better vantage point. Or a spotlight on a stone wall may gesture towards an open window, offering a way into a building that otherwise seems impregnable.

Of particular note are the ’60s-esque interiors that are somehow both beautiful and utterly garish in the way only retro furniture can be. Wooden walls, shocking red pleather couches that look like they would make your arse numb after a minute of sitting on them, and oddly contorted lighting fixtures will stop you in your tracks so you can ogle how strange they are. But they also fit into the aesthetic so perfectly that you can’t help but be impressed by the interior design chops being displayed. Needless to say, Arkane’s sense of art direction remains impeccable and, for my money, unmatched.

And complementing it is the raucous soundtrack that is as eclectic and as unexpected as the visual stylings. Continuing the mashup of style and themes, Deathloop transitions effortlessly between disparate styles to suit the needs of the moment from a cinematic standpoint, but also has you tapping your feet along to the chaos happening on screen. One minute you’re creeping through underground tunnels, backed by the bleeps, bloops, and ambient warbles of old sci-fi movies in tense stealth sections, and the next you’re engaged in an all-out gunfight with hordes of Eternalists to the sound of a big band orchestra and off-the-chain sax solos. Deathloop’s gunplay is weighty and satisfying, and a great deal of the thrill that comes from trading lead is elevated by the brilliant, funky soundtrack.

The final piece to Deathloop’s gameplay puzzle is multiplayer, which manifests itself in two ways. The first is technically not multiplayer, as it sees Julianna invade Colt’s game to try and assassinate him. This Julianna is computer-controlled but no less deadly for it. At random points, the game announces that Julianna has invaded and locked the exit points out the area. The only way to escape is to hack a specific point to unlock the exit tunnels, but to do that you have to go through her. These moments are genuinely terrifying, especially when you’re on a good run. Julianna is capable of masking her appearance to look like any random Eternalist, so she could really be anywhere and anyone. And when she does have you in her crosshairs you better hope you have her in yours. She can be ruthless, but the reward for taking her out is massive. She will often drop a Slab, meaning you can acquire powers or upgrades without needing to kill the Visionary who has them. And if you’re smart, you can even set up elaborate traps using turrets and grenades to get the jump on her.

Of course, a human player–someone on your friends list, a random person on the internet, or even you–can choose to protect the loop by assuming the role of Julianna. As the hunter, you invade Colt’s world with the goal of taking him out before he can kill you or escape. Unlike Colt, who has that ability to undo his deaths a couple of times, Julianna has just one shot at her mark, which means you need to be much more considered. However, the ability to mimic NPCs is a devious advantage that is much more effective than you might think, especially if you have a good understanding of the world and can use a player’s knowledge against them.

For example, you may know that there’s a specific enemy that is always positioned in a specific spot and, if you’re able to swap positions with them, the Colt player may just assume you’re a harmless Eternalist, only for you to strike when they least suspect it. You can also use powers that are unlocked gradually as you continue to invade players. Julianna has her own progression tree that tasks her with completing feats such as successfully killing Colt in a specific way, surviving for a certain period of time, using a particular weapon, and so on. As you complete these, more Slab abilities, weapons, and trinkets become available, making you a deadlier killer. The sense of tension this introduces to gameplay is exhilarating as you never know when a Julianna could appear to turn your world upside down. It harkens back to the kind of hide-and-seek multiplayer introduced in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and the PvP of the Soulsborne games, and it works really well within Deathloop. Of course, you can opt not to allow people to invade if you’d prefer a purely single-player experience.

Perhaps the most laudable part of Deathloop is how it takes so many seemingly disparate things and creates harmony between them. Gameplay systems that feel isolated become pieces of a bigger puzzle, and when you see how they seamlessly connect together, you realize how special an achievement it really is. Similarly, on paper, the different aesthetics should be like oil and water, but they come together effortlessly to be part of a greater whole, and, for me, that’s what Deathloop is really about. By standing back and looking at the bigger picture, the uncharacteristic choices and unexpected behaviors feel necessary–essential even. Maybe it’s just what I need to believe to give all that killing meaning, but when I began the final loop and carved a perfect, bloody path through Blackreef’s Visionaries in a single day, I made no ripples.

The Isle of Blackreef is a place where lawlessness and debauchery aren’t just welcomed but encouraged. It’s caught in a time loop, so the events of any given day have no bearing on the next. At the end of every sex, drug, and alcohol binge-fueled evening, the slate is wiped clean so it can happen all over again. Memories are lost and harm–self-inflicted or done to others–is always undone. Blackreef changed me. It made me behave in a way that’s not in my nature. Whether it’s Metal Gear Solid, Deus Ex, Splinter Cell, or Dishonored, the role I inhabit is that of a ghost, entering a scenario to achieve an objective and leaving with clean hands and conscience. I’m the pebble thrown into water that makes no ripples.

And yet, in Deathloop, I murdered hundreds of Eternalists and I felt good about doing it. I tried to be true to myself–skulking across rooftops, hiding in dark corners, and carefully moving between people, but the allure of Blackreef’s daily absolution was difficult to resist. I watched the first Eternalist I killed dissolve into nothingness, and a message written into the air in some ethereal ink assured me he’d return in the next loop, completely oblivious to what happened. Killing became second nature, and with no consequence why wouldn’t it?

The rules of Deathloop’s world created an intoxicating sense of liberation, but this leads to the game’s central question of purpose: When nothing matters, how do you give your actions meaning? That is where developer Arkane Lyon’s gameplay design comes into play, and killing with reckless abandon becomes killing for a reason: to break the loop. The mechanics that govern the world and facilitate your quest to upend it are constructed so masterfully that there’s a tangible sense of growth both in-game and out of it. You begin your first day in Blackreef dazed, confused, and incredibly hungover, and end your final one as the unstoppable architect of its demise.

But what’s most impressive about Deathloop is that it’s also an introspective game. It’s Arkane deconstructing its own brand of open-ended action and laying bare all the pieces crucial to it. The systems are presented as digestible on an individual level, but then the game subtly pushes you to put the pieces together so you can truly appreciate how the clockwork world ticks, before bringing a swift fist crashing down on it. Deathloop is a game where observation and dynamic thinking go hand-in-hand with shotgunning goons in the face and snapping their necks; where throwing a grenade into a soiree for sycophants counts as the right kind of experimentation and derring-do. It delivers bombastic thrills and wince-inducing kills with intelligence and elegance in equal measure.

At the heart of the game is Colt Vahn, a man simultaneously adrift in time and stuck within it. He wakes up on a beach with no memory of how he got there or what’s really going on. However, what distinguishes him from the other hedonistic denizens of Blackreef is that he is able to retain his memories between loops. Dying will force him into a new loop, but the knowledge he has accrued up until his death will return with him. And very soon, he discovers that a strange element called Residuum can be harnessed to give his arsenal of weaponry and supernatural abilities permanence too.

Like Arkane Lyon’s Dishonored games, Deathloop is a fascinating mashup of styles and vibes, both narratively and aesthetically. Underpinning the world is a kind of retro-future science that, as oxymoronic as it sounds, is incredibly effective at giving the world texture–think time travel by way of 1960s computers that fill a room and look like they have less power than an original iPhone. Complementing that is an element of the supernatural that is essentially time science harnessed by a genius mind to give a chosen few the ability to do things like teleport, link the fates of people together, become almost invisible to the naked eye, or throw objects around an environment with a wave of the hand. These abilities are bestowed to the Visionaries, an eclectic group of elites that the rank and file are sworn to protect so that their life of indulgence can remain eternal. Colt’s goal is to kill these Visionaries and, in doing so, break the time loop that keeps him trapped there. The rub is that it needs to be done in one day–a single loop. Easier said than done given that the game operates on a day and night cycle where, over the course of the loop, each Visionary has their own routine and life to lead.

Complicating matters further is the fact that the Visionaries know Colt is out to get them and, in fact, all of them have some sort of pre-existing relationship with him. One in particular, Julianna, takes it upon herself to be a thorn in Colt’s side. She serves the role of antagonist but the situation is clearly complicated between them. Their interpersonal dynamic is placed front and center to drive much of the narrative and characterization, and both characters are realized exceptionally well.

Julianna is the voice in Colt’s ear and also over Blackreef’s loudspeakers, and she does her damndest to get under his skin. She picks at him in a way that only someone with a deep personal connection to you can, using insight into his personality and history to constantly undermine him and poke at his neuroses. She’s always one step ahead, exposing Colt’s habits, analyzing his behaviors, and revealing truths about Colt that, because of his initial amnesia, he’s yet to realize himself. And yet, there’s also a sweetness to their interactions at times, like a couple in the heat of an argument remembering for just a moment why they care about each other. She’s a confusing presence, in one breath chastising him for his actions and in another encouraging them. She guides him to objectives and then lays the guilt on thick when he achieves them.

In a very real sense, she’s a pure agent of chaos and her motivations remain unclear until just the right moment. The voice acting is absolutely crucial to selling this relationship and in that regard, it is achieved exceptionally well thanks to the outstanding delivery by Jason E. Kelley and Ozioma Akagha as Colt and Julianna respectively. Some lines from Julianna have a mischievous tone while others are tinged with spite and growing frustration. For his part, Colt begins unsure of himself and unclear of why this woman has it in for him, but as he learns more, he becomes confident, choosing to engage in the verbal jousts and starting getting under her skin. The constant back and forths between the two is genuinely a joy to listen to and the writing is sharp to make the development of their relationship feel natural.

The main focus of Colt’s attention, however, is the aforementioned Visionaries who need to be offed, and this is where Deathloop’s open-ended gameplay does the heavy lifting. Blackreef is split up into multiple districts, and each one is usually home to at least one of the Visionaries. Colt’s objective is to enter an area and figure out how to get himself into a position where he can kill said Visionary and take their Slab, an item that gives them one of the six unique supernatural abilities. But it’s not as simple as running into a building and gunning them down as each of the Visionaries is… a weirdo. Charlie, for example, has transformed a part of Updaam into a low-budget escape room made up of multiple themed floors, complete with puzzles and a whole lot of weapon-wielding Eternalists standing between the entrance and him. Harriet has taken up residence in a Karl’s Bay hanger, where she’s hosting a group wellness session that is as sinister as it sounds. Wenjie is a super smart scientist who is responsible for harnessing the strange energy of the time loop to create the slabs and rarely leaves her lab in The Complex, but you might find yourself facing an existential conundrum when you’re face to face with her.

Deathloop is a game where observation and dynamic thinking go hand-in-hand with shotgunning goons in the face and snapping their necks … it delivers bombastic thrills and wince-inducing kills with intelligence and elegance in equal measure

Deathloop’s day-and-night cycle also means that these Visionaries are only available at certain times of the day. Although you can manually progress time to your needs, there’s only ever a specific window of opportunity to kill a Visionary. That means you need to play through time loops repeatedly, puzzling out a plan to execute it when the time is right. The game makes this more manageable by giving the player Visionary Leads to follow. These are quest chains that guide the player to key pieces of information necessary to pull off the assassination and will often take Colt through different environments at different times of the day. You may need the code to a door in Fristad Rock, for example, but a ledger with that information is being stored in an office elsewhere that can only be accessed when a worker leaves the door open in the afternoon.

The result of this approach is that you’re slowly trained to develop a meticulous understanding of each area in the game. And as your Colt grows in strength and capabilities, so too does your proficiency in navigating them. After killing a Visionary you gain a power, which can be used in the following time loops, provided you invest in it. This growth comes by way of Residuum that can be extracted from charged objects in the environment or, in more abundance, from the dead body of a Visionary. By channeling this resource into weapons and items, you’re able to hold onto them between loops. Slab powers are the most essential as they give you a significant ability, and killing a Visionary repeatedly to take their slab will evolve the power. The Shift power, for example, lets you teleport much like Dishonored’s Blink. But by repeatedly killing the Visionary wielding it and collecting it, you’re able to upgrade the power to let you travel further or hover in the air briefly. Aether lets you turn invisible but becomes more effective if you upgrade it so its effect doesn’t wear off when you attack.

Along with powers, Trinkets are also littered throughout the world and come in two flavors. Weapon trinkets can be used to augment your combat abilities by improving stats like range, power, and aim-down-sights speed. Personal trinkets, meanwhile, enhance Colt’s performance by improving health regeneration, decreasing the amount of noise he makes when moving, or adjusting how his power meter depletes and recovers, among other things. And these all come in multiple color-coded tiers of effectiveness. The presence of these is what makes each time loop consistently rewarding to play through, even if you fail to achieve a bigger objective. Sometimes it can be good to do a run through an area or even an entire loop to build your Residuum balance and collect some more trinkets, especially since it’s also an opportunity to refine your chosen playstyle a bit more. There’s nothing quite like deciding to run into an area with your guns blazing just so you can chew through Eternalists and a Visionary, knowing that you’re doing it just to grab resources. Since Colt is able to come back from death twice, there is a degree of forgiveness in the game that really encourages doing wacky things when the opportunity arises. That third death will reset the loop entirely though, so some strategy is also required if you want to make the most of your time.

Very quickly, you’ll find yourself developing a level of mastery over the world thanks to the powers and weapons that you’ve accumulated. A Visionary kill that initially took 20 minutes can be reduced to just a couple as you dart around environments, stealthing through one group of enemies, while laying siege to another, and ultimately cutting through your target before they’ve even realized what’s happening. The repetition-based design of Deathloop eases you into creating a flow state that you can enter into and exit from at will. With the character development systems, it gamifies trial and error so effectively that failures almost always still feel like small triumphs. This might sound typical, given the prominence of recent roguelite games such as Hades, but Deathloop’s gameplay feels entirely of its own brand, and that is because it’s built on the foundation of Arkane’s domino-effect design.

That is especially apparent as you uncover dead ends, of which there are many scattered around Deathloop’s various environments. Documents peppered around the world will provide a small lead on something, which is then marked as a discovery, and the game does an excellent job of creating a breadcrumb trail around Blackreef for you to follow, and it always leads to something meaningful. Whether it’s finding the code to open a locked door you stumbled upon hours ago or figuring out how to manipulate two Visionaries into appearing at the same place at the same time, you’re never more than a run or two away from having an epiphany. And when it dawns upon you, the feeling will make you giddy. It’s like using just the right wrench to loosen a nut that felt like it was impossibly tight.

In many regards, Deathloop is a game about being meticulous, and Arkane has done a fantastic job in making just being in the world, looking around, and listening to it enthralling. It should come as no surprise that Blackreef is absolutely stunning to behold, given the strong sense of art direction the studio’s previous games have had. Each of the four areas of the game has a distinct style, which changes depending on the time of day thanks to lighting and even weather effects. There’s a wonderful retro pop-art motif that runs throughout, with eye-catching posters and signs that not only furnish each environment to be visually pleasing, but also serve as a kind of pathway for the player to explore. Architecture is constructed thoughtfully so, in any given scenario, you can see a way in and a way out. On the ground level, a neon billboard may draw your attention, revealing scaffolding that can be clambered up to give you a better vantage point. Or a spotlight on a stone wall may gesture towards an open window, offering a way into a building that otherwise seems impregnable.

Of particular note are the ’60s-esque interiors that are somehow both beautiful and utterly garish in the way only retro furniture can be. Wooden walls, shocking red pleather couches that look like they would make your arse numb after a minute of sitting on them, and oddly contorted lighting fixtures will stop you in your tracks so you can ogle how strange they are. But they also fit into the aesthetic so perfectly that you can’t help but be impressed by the interior design chops being displayed. Needless to say, Arkane’s sense of art direction remains impeccable and, for my money, unmatched.

And complementing it is the raucous soundtrack that is as eclectic and as unexpected as the visual stylings. Continuing the mashup of style and themes, Deathloop transitions effortlessly between disparate styles to suit the needs of the moment from a cinematic standpoint, but also has you tapping your feet along to the chaos happening on screen. One minute you’re creeping through underground tunnels, backed by the bleeps, bloops, and ambient warbles of old sci-fi movies in tense stealth sections, and the next you’re engaged in an all-out gunfight with hordes of Eternalists to the sound of a big band orchestra and off-the-chain sax solos. Deathloop’s gunplay is weighty and satisfying, and a great deal of the thrill that comes from trading lead is elevated by the brilliant, funky soundtrack.

The final piece to Deathloop’s gameplay puzzle is multiplayer, which manifests itself in two ways. The first is technically not multiplayer, as it sees Julianna invade Colt’s game to try and assassinate him. This Julianna is computer-controlled but no less deadly for it. At random points, the game announces that Julianna has invaded and locked the exit points out the area. The only way to escape is to hack a specific point to unlock the exit tunnels, but to do that you have to go through her. These moments are genuinely terrifying, especially when you’re on a good run. Julianna is capable of masking her appearance to look like any random Eternalist, so she could really be anywhere and anyone. And when she does have you in her crosshairs you better hope you have her in yours. She can be ruthless, but the reward for taking her out is massive. She will often drop a Slab, meaning you can acquire powers or upgrades without needing to kill the Visionary who has them. And if you’re smart, you can even set up elaborate traps using turrets and grenades to get the jump on her.

Of course, a human player–someone on your friends list, a random person on the internet, or even you–can choose to protect the loop by assuming the role of Julianna. As the hunter, you invade Colt’s world with the goal of taking him out before he can kill you or escape. Unlike Colt, who has that ability to undo his deaths a couple of times, Julianna has just one shot at her mark, which means you need to be much more considered. However, the ability to mimic NPCs is a devious advantage that is much more effective than you might think, especially if you have a good understanding of the world and can use a player’s knowledge against them.

For example, you may know that there’s a specific enemy that is always positioned in a specific spot and, if you’re able to swap positions with them, the Colt player may just assume you’re a harmless Eternalist, only for you to strike when they least suspect it. You can also use powers that are unlocked gradually as you continue to invade players. Julianna has her own progression tree that tasks her with completing feats such as successfully killing Colt in a specific way, surviving for a certain period of time, using a particular weapon, and so on. As you complete these, more Slab abilities, weapons, and trinkets become available, making you a deadlier killer. The sense of tension this introduces to gameplay is exhilarating as you never know when a Julianna could appear to turn your world upside down. It harkens back to the kind of hide-and-seek multiplayer introduced in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and the PvP of the Soulsborne games, and it works really well within Deathloop. Of course, you can opt not to allow people to invade if you’d prefer a purely single-player experience.

Perhaps the most laudable part of Deathloop is how it takes so many seemingly disparate things and creates harmony between them. Gameplay systems that feel isolated become pieces of a bigger puzzle, and when you see how they seamlessly connect together, you realize how special an achievement it really is. Similarly, on paper, the different aesthetics should be like oil and water, but they come together effortlessly to be part of a greater whole, and, for me, that’s what Deathloop is really about. By standing back and looking at the bigger picture, the uncharacteristic choices and unexpected behaviors feel necessary–essential even. Maybe it’s just what I need to believe to give all that killing meaning, but when I began the final loop and carved a perfect, bloody path through Blackreef’s Visionaries in a single day, I made no ripples.

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